No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 71 



directing forces. The critics who think only of the number 

 of graduates, and take no account of this important and 

 wide-spread influence of these educational centres, entertain 

 a very narrow view of the work of such institutions. The 

 graduates may have been comparatively few, but they have 

 been of the tribe of Levi. They and their teachers have been 

 high priests in the temple of agriculture, and with their faces 

 turned to the light emanating from a wonderful revelation 

 of nature's laws and methods, they have ministered to the 

 people according to the measure of their understanding. 



As a preface to the conclusion of this address, I desire to 

 quote to you a brief portion of the act of Congress of 1862, 

 which donated public land for the maintenance of the so- 

 called land-grant colleges. Section 4 of this act declares that 

 the leading object of these colleges "shall be, without ex- 

 cluding other scientific and classical studies, and including 

 military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are re- 

 lated to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner 

 as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, 

 in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the 

 industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of 

 life." 



It is unnecessary, perhaps, to remind you that the agri- 

 cultural class includes more than the farmer himself, — it em- 

 braces the farmer's wife, the farmer's son, and last, but in 

 no sense least, the farmer's daughter. By this I mean to 

 declare that not only the art of agriculture, but the home 

 with its environment and the proper nurture and training of 

 the children to take their place as workers, as husbands and 

 fathers, as wives and mothers, are involved in the spirit and 

 purpose of the first Morrill law. This act of Congress has 

 a most comprehensive relation to the life of the people. The 

 laws of chemistry and physics that the farmer must consider 

 should be recognized by his wife. The principles that per- 

 tain to the feeding of colts and calves are identical with 

 those that are related to the feeding of children. The outlook 

 in literature, philosophy and economics that are so important 

 to the man, are equally important to the woman, who, as a 

 mother, is so potently determining the status of our citizen- 

 ship. 



